Anthropic CEO: AI could conquer cancer, heart disease and mental illnesses within a decade

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently stated that if the "magical power" of artificial intelligence (AI) is properly applied, widespread health problems such as cancer and mental illness could "cease to exist" within a decade.

Amodei said in the company's IPO roadshow video: "You know, if we look at the problems of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, mental illness and so on today, I think in less than ten years, all of these will be relics of the past."

"I think if we get it right, we can create an era of miracles where humanity can solve problems that have plagued us for thousands of years," he added.

This is not the first time Amodei has made such a startling prediction. He previously said in an interview that AI is expected to assist scientists in finding treatments for most cancers in the future, be used to prevent Alzheimer's disease, and may even double human lifespan.

However, it should be noted that the above content is Amodei's prediction of future technological development, not a realized medical achievement, nor does it mean that a universally applicable cure for the relevant diseases has emerged.

At the same time, the claim that all these diseases that have plagued top medical experts will be suddenly cured by AI has sparked doubts from some AI opponents and doctors, who have expressed their skepticism on the X platform.

Former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on X: "Curing cancer, Alzheimer's and mental illness with artificial intelligence may indeed bring benefits, but it is impossible to achieve this in only 10 years."

"It is unclear whether people like @DarioAmodei know nothing about medicine or are deliberately misleading the public," he added.

Melinda B. Chu, MD, a medical artificial intelligence researcher at Saint Louis University, said Amodei made these predictions just to hype up the popularity of the company's IPO.

"There is no indication that Anthropic itself will make meaningful contributions to achieving these goals," Chu said.

At the same time, other leaders in the artificial intelligence field have repeatedly made astonishing predictions.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, said that at some point in the next 10 to 20 years, work will become "optional" because AI-powered robots will take over the daily tasks and jobs that keep the entire economy running.

"My prediction is that work will become a choice," Musk said earlier this year: "It will be like activities such as sports, playing video games. Work is like, you can go to the store to buy some vegetables, or grow vegetables in your backyard. Growing vegetables in the backyard is much more difficult, but some people still insist on doing it because they enjoy growing vegetables."

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, predicts that the world will be completely changed in ten years due to the development of artificial intelligence.

"If we build the first million humanoid robots the traditional way, but then they can run the entire supply chain — mining and refining minerals, driving trucks, operating factories, and so on — to make more robots, which in turn can build more chip fabrication plants, data centers, and so on, then the pace of progress will obviously be completely different," he wrote in a blog post last year.

This article is from the WeChat official account "CLS.cn", author: Huang Junzhi, published by 36Kr with authorization.